8x8 Album from an Old Children's Chipboard Book & Rambling Thoughts on the Commercialization of the Scrapbooking Hobby
I'm a great lover of books (the whole family is, actually) and I don't like defacing books even just those dog-ears on book corners.
Then scrapbooking took a different turn from the scrapbooking of old -- everything and anything can be used and can go together on a project. Now we use actual things found anywhere and everywhere not just the usual 2-dimensional embellishments we used to adorn our simple pages. We employ methods and techniques from other art media into our crafts.
Who would think that a simple hobby from Victorian times and practiced and enjoyed only by grandmothers and homely mothers would turn into a multi-million dollar industry? Suddenly we were flooded with metal hinges, safety pins, gears, clock parts and other items we used to only find in our kitchens, garages and hardware stores now made specially for scrapbooking! It's not just the pictures anymore that matters, the embellishments and the backgrounds took center stage, too.
I 'm of two minds about this really. I find the divergence from the usual methods and techniques very welcoming and refreshing. Even some of the ideas I have even employed myself even before it became popular (of course the popular mode is more nicely turned-out LOL!). I like it on the whole, scrappers now become more creative, more ingenious and are happier I should think.
With the advent of IT and the mushrooming of scrapbook sites and blogs on the internet, it has also opened a whole new universe for scrappers all over the world to get connected. It may be a "mutual admiration society" but it has paved the way for mere cyber-friends to be real friends in the real world, sometimes even if they're continents away from one another. And I would venture to say that of all things internet, scrapbooking forums are the only ones who have no TROLLS in them LMAO!
Sometimes, though, there are moments when I hope the mutual admiration soc thing would somehow be moderated. I, for one (who's really insecure about my work if shown to others outside my family circle) would welcome a real, honest-to-goodness and objective critique of my projects and not just showered with lavish praises. Of course, in general, positives are uplifting to the crafter's soul. So, okay, I concede. Lavish me with your praises, forget about the critique thing. ROFL!
I'm more concerned about the commercialization issue I've mentioned. I don't know when it started since I begun scrapping before my first child was even born in 1998. Before my second child came three years later, I've already made hundreds of simple 8 1/2 x 5 layouts just for her--chronicling her life from pre-natal stage. That was before I was even aware that there is this uber-commercialized scrapbooking world outside my bubble. When things got more hectic at home and photo ops are not that abundant as before, my scrapping became a few pages per year.
Then 2008 came and boom! did I get the shock of my scrapping life. I was thinking where have I been all these years? As in, really? Things have been happening and ballooning like crazy and I was still stuck with my PrintShop Deluxe layouts! Come on! LOL!
Anyway, when the crafting bug got me again (read: became a stay-at-home mother :P), I checked different scrapbooking sites and became inspired to do things differently. I joined in the fun.
Oh, geez. I am babbling, am I not? I remember I actually made the same rambling 2 years ago on my facebook page entitled My "I-don't-care-if-it's-not-acid-free" Outlook on Scrapbooking. If you have the patience go check it out (though it's in Tagalog-English, but mainly English).
Why did I create this post again? Oh yes, defacing a book and the 8x8 old chipboard book album I'm currently working on.
I used my son's tattered chipboard book that has been damaged by damp and sprouting malignant-under-the-microscope spots. I cleaned every page out, sanded each page and applied gesso. When my gesso ran out, I just used my ordinary white acrylic paint which I mixed with glitters (they tend to dry faster than normal).
I sprayed the pages with my DIY alcohol inks because if a page turned out well, saves me from covering the page with PPs. I'd get instant textured and glittered background for my layouts!
Here's the album cover:
This is the first album page I've finished (finished it even before I made the cover LOL!) An old framed photo of my son hanging on the monkey bars got damaged so I cut his silhouette and attached it to a DIY bird to imitate flying, hence the title. I made the tree years ago from embossed handmade paper, hand-cut alphas and scraps of double-sided PPs.
I used my hoarded DCWV Pocketfull of Posies glittered card stocks for the title mounts, flower and butterfly embellies and the title. I also used a chipboard mini-album page, fibers for the ribbon, pearl brad, plastic buttons and gemstone stickers. That green border and the one below the red chipboard album page is actually the ones from the cover of the paper pack and not an actual PP. Waste not, want not!
Then scrapbooking took a different turn from the scrapbooking of old -- everything and anything can be used and can go together on a project. Now we use actual things found anywhere and everywhere not just the usual 2-dimensional embellishments we used to adorn our simple pages. We employ methods and techniques from other art media into our crafts.
Who would think that a simple hobby from Victorian times and practiced and enjoyed only by grandmothers and homely mothers would turn into a multi-million dollar industry? Suddenly we were flooded with metal hinges, safety pins, gears, clock parts and other items we used to only find in our kitchens, garages and hardware stores now made specially for scrapbooking! It's not just the pictures anymore that matters, the embellishments and the backgrounds took center stage, too.
I 'm of two minds about this really. I find the divergence from the usual methods and techniques very welcoming and refreshing. Even some of the ideas I have even employed myself even before it became popular (of course the popular mode is more nicely turned-out LOL!). I like it on the whole, scrappers now become more creative, more ingenious and are happier I should think.
With the advent of IT and the mushrooming of scrapbook sites and blogs on the internet, it has also opened a whole new universe for scrappers all over the world to get connected. It may be a "mutual admiration society" but it has paved the way for mere cyber-friends to be real friends in the real world, sometimes even if they're continents away from one another. And I would venture to say that of all things internet, scrapbooking forums are the only ones who have no TROLLS in them LMAO!
Sometimes, though, there are moments when I hope the mutual admiration soc thing would somehow be moderated. I, for one (who's really insecure about my work if shown to others outside my family circle) would welcome a real, honest-to-goodness and objective critique of my projects and not just showered with lavish praises. Of course, in general, positives are uplifting to the crafter's soul. So, okay, I concede. Lavish me with your praises, forget about the critique thing. ROFL!
I'm more concerned about the commercialization issue I've mentioned. I don't know when it started since I begun scrapping before my first child was even born in 1998. Before my second child came three years later, I've already made hundreds of simple 8 1/2 x 5 layouts just for her--chronicling her life from pre-natal stage. That was before I was even aware that there is this uber-commercialized scrapbooking world outside my bubble. When things got more hectic at home and photo ops are not that abundant as before, my scrapping became a few pages per year.
Then 2008 came and boom! did I get the shock of my scrapping life. I was thinking where have I been all these years? As in, really? Things have been happening and ballooning like crazy and I was still stuck with my PrintShop Deluxe layouts! Come on! LOL!
Anyway, when the crafting bug got me again (read: became a stay-at-home mother :P), I checked different scrapbooking sites and became inspired to do things differently. I joined in the fun.
Oh, geez. I am babbling, am I not? I remember I actually made the same rambling 2 years ago on my facebook page entitled My "I-don't-care-if-it's-not-acid-free" Outlook on Scrapbooking. If you have the patience go check it out (though it's in Tagalog-English, but mainly English).
Why did I create this post again? Oh yes, defacing a book and the 8x8 old chipboard book album I'm currently working on.
I used my son's tattered chipboard book that has been damaged by damp and sprouting malignant-under-the-microscope spots. I cleaned every page out, sanded each page and applied gesso. When my gesso ran out, I just used my ordinary white acrylic paint which I mixed with glitters (they tend to dry faster than normal).
Here's the album cover:
The next page are my 2 kids who graduated from elementary and pre-elementary at the same day 2 years ago. I actually intended it to be just for Z but I didn't factor in the facing-pages issue so I made it and all succeeding LOs double-page/facing-pages LOs.
All but one (the white butterfly) of the embellishments on this LO are handmade by me. The Tim Holtz Fanciful Flight butterfly is made from chipboard, painted white then I used Folk Arts Antique Bronze acrylic paint to highlight. I love the organza flower though I don't love the burning thing much LOL! The flower clumps were made using a witchcraft book I bought from Booksale not because of its contents but because of the pages!
This LO I made for myself LOL! I grabbed a bunch of pix from our pre-kids days (4 "bliss-less" years ;P):
I don't know what style this is. I just used what I have with what I picture in my head LOL! The Tim Holtz weathered clock pieces and the small frames were either covered with crumpled aluminum foil and painted black and bronze and copper acrylic paints or just embossed using Cuttlebug Clockworks embossing folder and then painted.
These flowers are one of my DIY favorites. The petals are from the top inside of the ampersand (&) shape from the Sizzix Dingbats #2 die. I had lots of them because I cut a lot of the ampersand shapes to make frame stands. So I glued them to a chipboard circle to make a flower, embossed, then painted black and metallic, and finally added DIY air-dry clay flat-backed pearls.
This is my daughter in her 1st Communion. I can't find a whole body shot of my son in a similar pose except this, so I have to alter my title LOL! The flowers and angel wings are all DIY made from mulberry paper. The only bought commercial embellies I used are the chipboard letters of the words "angels" and "PE uni". The rest I just used those cardstocks that come with the packaging of previous embellishments I bought and kept all these years.
This layout showcases my kids' names actually, thus the title. Even before we had kids we've always wanted to name our kids with single-letter names starting from Z. Philippine law prohibits single-letter names so their actual first names are mere afterthoughts. Their nicknames are just that, Z and Y. Sadly, we couldn't have a kid named "X" because just 2 days after my son was born he came down with a serious infection and it was then that we found out that my husband and I have incompatible blood types (A-B-O Incompatibility). Y was later diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay. Much as we would like to complete the English alphabet, we' rather not argue with genetics. LOL!
FINALLY, this page is specially dear to me aside from it being my first entry to the Filipino Scrapbooker's 2nd Sketch Challenge:
It is a page dedicated to my younger sister (and only sibling!) who passed away last year at age 35 from cancer.
And this is my second take on the sketch, a slight moderation but basically the same. I had to modify the actual LO because of the smaller dimensions I have to work with.
This is one of the ultimate favorite pix of my kids taken in 2004. While we were having an electoral campaign meeting inside the house, the two of them (ages nearly 6 and 3) played with the sacks of flour we were using for our campaign posters (they looked like two little Caspers but sadly no photo of that!) and afterwards played in the rain and in the mud outside!
I used actual corrugated box, painted with Memory Keepers Pearl paint dabbed with Rub n Buff Antique Copper metal finish. All alphas are hand cut. Faux forged metal effect on the frame and large paper clip. Paper flowers are commercially made. Vintage photo on the fame is just a computer printout.
Sorry for my earlier ramblings. I hope I made you think somehow. I'm not dissing anything (which is an unwritten No-No in the scrapping world LOL!) just voicing out my personal thoughts.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed looking at my pathetic attempts. Tell me what you think, really!
Cheerio for now!
The whatever/however scrapper who never runs out of words -- CES
Hi Ces!
ReplyDeleteI like the 1st one - my sweet butterfly in terms of colors and embellishments. I'm not that much for mud. hehehe ... I was surprised to see the 2nd LO though it was completely done to complement the photo. =)
I'm so glad you're enjoying our sketch challenge by not only submitting 1 LO but 2 LOs. I hope you won't get tired joining more of our sketch challenges as the months progresses.
Kathleen
http://creobyladykatutz.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Ms Kath. I would really be joining enthusiastically from now own. Muddy was more of a fun layout than anything else, I was actually thinking removing that yellow flower there she looks kinda lost para siyang OP e LOL! Thanks again!
Deletei love your first layout- my sweet butterfly, the color combo is beautiful and how you stretch the layout by creating a double page layout. I'm glad you enjoyed the sketch and created another layout. I love the title work on your second layout. Thank you for playing along with us at the Filipino Scrapbookers Challenge Blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ms Melissa! I tried doing the challenge and got hooked LOL! :D
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